Implications for practice and research

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is a major public health problem.

For decades, guidelines prescribed mouth-to-mouth (MTM) ventilation as the first step in resuscitation of both primary and
secondary cardiac arrest.

The report by Iwami and associates is another observational study in patients that found improved survival of patients with
primary OHCA who received chest compression only cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CO-CPR) by bystanders.1

Context

Bystander-initiated MTM ventilation alternating with chest compressions was initially the standard, and has been in …